Are you covered for all the disastrous situations that can affect your practice?

Treat your practice as well as you do your patients. You take care of other people’s medical emergencies every day. Be prepared for your own. Unfortunately, physicians are not immune to illness.

One of my clients suffered a sudden, unexpected medical episode, rendering him unable to practice for several months. He thought the office overhead would be paid because he had business interruption insurance. Not so. Business interruption coverage is for fire, flood, and damage caused by external sources. Business overhead insurance covers your practice if you are disabled. This is separate from your personal disability insurance. What he considered to be redundant coverage was not.

His colleagues were very generous and covered his solo practice while he was hospitalized. The one thing we didn’t have to worry about was care for his patients.

We had to scramble to pay the bills and prevent the employees from fleeing. His receivables would only flow in for a month or two. His business bank account balance was low. His personal disability policy had a 90-day waiting period. Since his prognosis was poor, we could not borrow from his personal account. It was the perfect storm. One insurance policy would have been his lifeboat.

Lesson: Meet with your insurance agent annually to discuss your entire package of policies. Then, if you ever find yourself in an intensive care unit, all you will have to worry about is your physical recovery.